at one point in his career, he was the editor of an indian newspaper called indian express. history is his passion. he is the author of definitive biographies on my hot -- mahatma at gandhi and several books that advance understanding of southeastern history. he is a well sought after figure all over the world and when we contacted him to speak at the lincoln museum he had just received the latest edition of his book, "a tale of two revolts" and the american civil war. before i hand over the microphone to professor gandhi, a couple of trivia about him. in india, we attribute one's achievements to some degree to one's heritage. rajmohan gandhi baas lifelong commitment to fight for civil rights is not surprising for he is the grandson of mahatma gandhi. however, his ability to tell a story in beautiful prose with alec and wordplay is directly attributable to his eternal grandfather, and animate -- eminent leader in the struggle of india as a contributor to indian literature both in indian and -- on which is. president kennedy upon meeting rajmohan gandhi commented, this meetin

liz hunt, the ceo of the indian center of santa clara. [applause] i want to thank you all for joining us here in santa risk -- san francisco. in the tradition of our city, in honor and recognition of our indian heritage month, i would like to present -- and i am proud to present, in partnership with kqed, the public broadcasting station, friendship house, and indian health center's santa clara valley, san francisco native american health center, to celebrate four outstanding heroes that we will be recognizing tonight, their work in the bay area, and with the authority i have as the mayor of city and county of san francisco, with the participation of our wonderful and beautiful dancers and spiritual drummers, declaring this to be officially the american indian heritage month in san francisco. thank you all for coming. [applause] >> local heroes. do what last year's or this year's? [applause] [applause] dancers, stand by. how about a big round of applause for mayor edwin lee? [applause] mayor lee, i would have voted for you, but i live in o

this is at the heart of my service to indian help center. i was trying to think of a single event or thing or contribution i had made in my years of service, and there really is not one. when i did it showed up at least once a month for a few hours for the past almost 14 years and share my opinions, many opinions, and what i had to offer. i think a lot of times

indian tacos. be ready. i am looking for mark. is the mayor close by? once again, all of you native americans, go ahead and raise your hand. you have all been drafted. [laughter] i have not seen this many native americans in one place since we were out at ifh, picking up our settlement checks. you did not get yours? [laughter] president obama said they are in the mail. all right. we're going to go right into this next introduction of our dancers. are our dancers ready? get ready for our dancers. just one minute. let's go over to our napsters. how about an intertribal? make them dance. you are listening to one of our intertribals. depending on which the tribe, which area of the indian country you are from, a lot of these songs, we were not able to sing these songs publicly. we were not able to dance. when that happens, when we cannot speak our language, sing our song or dance our style of dance, we lose a little bit of ourselves, our indian identity. a lot of these dances and songs were ceremonial, prior to powwows. they are religious in content. the wor

i think the indian system -- the indian justice system has to learn from this case and basically noty isn't over yet. people all over the world have taken an interest in mithu and jassi, urging authorities to press charges against jassi's uncle and mother. about 20,000 have signed a petition online at justiceforjassi.com. a website created by the south asian post publisher. >> it's unacceptable, after seven years, that a girl has been murdered, a canadian citizen has been killed in india and yet we have her mother and uncle yet to be charged. >> now, free again, mithu decided to move to a new city in india to start rebuilding his life. though jassi's death has been tragic for mithu in so many ways, her family back in canada seems to have moved on. just one last question. when she died, no one from your family went to claim her body. if as you say you had nothing to do with this, why did you just leave her there? thousands of miles from home. one of many questions that jassi's uncle refuses to answer. jassi's remains were claimed by mithu's mother. and in keeping with sikh tradition,

or indians get to do certain kinds of trade. i'd like too do that. so i'm an indian. then some spanish family, who they're related to, will not have the proper heir in the estate if they don't have an heir, and they say, no, no, you're spaniard now. so these incredibly fluid social categories. and people like a mayawoman -- she wasn't maya. she was actually from somewhere else originally and this is becoming -- spanish was her third identity. >> there wasn't essay by joan didion where she talked about her difficulty flying from new york to california, how long the six are hour flight took, and then she remembered her ancestors trekked across the plains and wonders whether she has the capacity to -- for that kind of physical bravery. but i would even argue for that kind of -- that flexibility of self-hood. most of us are wedded to concepts of self that are really rather static rather than fluid as you're suggesting. >> we're not in those situations. who knows what would have happened, how we would be if be were in a world that was changing as rapidly as the world right

this is at the heart of my service to indian help center. i was trying to think of a single event or thing or contribution i had made in my years of service, and there really is not one. when i did it showed up at least once a month for a few hours for the past almost 14 years and share my opinions, many opinions, and what i had to offer. i think a lot of times people underestimate what showing up can really do. number nine, always wear comfortable shoes. this is important for at least two reasons. one, it is hard to do your best thinking when your feet hurt. number two, it makes it easier to get away from people who do not approve of your opinions or might be chasing you. number eight, being kind it takes no more time than it takes to be a jerk. i learned most of that whenever is practicing law. -- when i was practicing law. number seven, stand up for yourself, even if you are afraid. you have to be willing to stand up to the police that cross your path, or you will not be able to advocate effectively or anyone else. number six, other peopl

he is also known through indian country as a not

there were no union representation for the 35,000 or so black west indians.nd earlier in the construction period the steam shovel men went on strike and the chief engineers took a hard stance against them and they said basically you're fired. there will be no strikes and so the unions represented some of the skilled workers and they worked hard to represent them but the focused more on the lobbying in washington, d.c. and trying to make sure that congress passed the math to become measures that would support their work. >> some 35,000 or so west indian african descent workers, how many white americans work on the can now? >> about five or 6,000 white american men. they were skilled workers working as railroad engineers, conductors, firemen, machinists carpenters, that sort of thing. >> go back to the gold and;;; silver pay.;;;;;;; just the white workers would get paid in gold and the others would get paid in silver? what did that create? >> that created a system in the canal that meant the white skilled workers on the gold were very much privilege

so much better understanding of the indian culture and ability to work with indian culture, cultural content. what you eventually got on the side of the english and americans was a good enough ability with the indians and that is where we are. not as if we naturally have reform with the locals but lot of effort and in a variety of ways wt some of which are essentially a more substantial flotilla on lake champlain and completely -- a slightly superior royal navy so one of the things the book brings out -- the multiplicity of that. even as we do all the things we have done in iraq and afghanistan we are also getting ready for much larger kinds of forces. >> we have a little time because the efficiency -- we might take a couple of questions from the audience. go ahead. [inaudible] [laughter] >> we would have to go through the institutional review board at johns hopkins university. the medical school would be passing on whether i could use human subjects. [inaudible] >> no. as i said to somebody it is a real book with footnotes and foreign languages and everything. in washington that is

she was full blooded miami indian. she was married to a cruel and abusive man who happened to be my grandfather. and at 13-years-old to escape her family's poverty, she married this man. her husband would never allow her to sit at the same table as her kids. kerry cash or further her education. when she eventually divorced him, she was ahead of her time, she worked at an orphanage to take care of those that had even less than she imagined. helps me remember and honor her sacrifices. [applause] be the way -- be the change you wish to see in the world. we do not have to look very far to what should be different or better. i realize i am preaching to the choir, because most of you live this every day with your volunteer service. i encourage you to continue to do that and encourage others to join you. number one, and this is the most important thing, but this has been rolling around my head for most of my life, and it is if you have enough, you have enough to share. i am really grateful that my work continues to surround m

and -- indians. had so much a better understanding of the indian culture and ability to work with indian cultural context. but what you eventually got on the side of the english and the americans and the scots and irish and all the rest was a good enough ability to deal with the indians. and i would say that's sort of where we are. it's not as if we naturally have rapport with the locals, whoever the locals may be, but by a lot of effort and in a variety of ways we can kind of do well enough. a third thought is it seems to me that the book, um, is, talks about a number of different dimensions of the way of war. you mentioned roger's action at the battle of snowshoes which is this little skirmish -- not a skirmish, it was a bloody little fight which takes place on snowshoes and is a disaster for rogers and his men but also talks about some things which are really sort of industrial warfare as when benedict arnold built this amazing fleet out of virtually nothing in 1776, and then this is repeated late